Has little Rhode Island become the center for offshore wind power in the United States? Sure seems like it. The nation’s first offshore wind farm will start operating off Block Island next month. The project drew interest from European visitors recently, and this week, Rhode Island hosted an offshore wind energy conference.
Session after session, panelists congratulated Rhode Island and Deepwater Wind for building the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
This milestone created palpable excitement, according to Thomas Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, which organized the conference.
“The previous years’ conferences, there was hope for the future that the industry would get launched and that we would get there, and I think there was a commitment to make that happen.”
And it’s happened. This week, the first wave of energy traveled between Block Island and the mainland and testing continues. The Block Island Wind Farm is a couple of weeks away from producing enough electricity to power 17,000 homes.
Kiernan said this project launches a new energy era in the country as we add offshore wind to the electric grid. Wind projects on land are showing what’s possible.
“We’ve got land-based wind showing that as you strengthen the supply chain you can reduce the cost, increase productivity, increase public support,” said Kiernan.
As consumers demand cleaner sources of energy, states are responding with ambitious policies to promote renewable energy. Massachusetts, for example, passed a law that requires 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy, touted Massachusetts State Rep. Tom Golden.
“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we are open for business,” said Golden. “We are very serious about this. We are going to continue to take bold steps in order to make sure that our energy portfolio is diversified and cleaner.”
This week, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut approved bidders for 460 megawatts of renewable energy projects that include solar and wind to help meet the region’s needs.
Offshore wind now has a promising spot in the country’s renewable energy portfolio. From Massachusetts to Virginia, the federal government has issued 11 leases, and it will auction off more than 79,000 acres offshore New York in December.
Europeans are paying close attention to these developments and competing here now. Throughout the conference, there was a strong, visible presence of European companies, including DONG Energy, considered the global leader of offshore wind energy.
At a roundtable, the company’s Danielle Lane explained why it entered the American market about a year and a half ago.
“There’s a whole opportunity here on the whole East Coast and potentially in the Pacific as well,” she said. “So this conference shows that there’s a great appetite and that we are on the threshold of something potentially great here.”
Europe has deployed more than 12 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.
“You could easily see the same success could be replicated here, if not in a greater scale,” said Lane.
Europe’s interest and investment in the U.S.’s emerging offshore wind market is a vote of confidence, according to Jeff Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s CEO.
“The fact that they are here and competing is a good thing for our market and our ratepayers,” said Grybowski, “because the story that we’ve seen in Europe is that as countries transitioned from fixed tariffs to competitive auctions, price came down significantly.”
All the optimism and enthusiasm was grounded in the recognition that these projects are very complicated and the industry won’t take off overnight, but at least now there’s proof that it can get done.
This report comes from the New England News Collaborative. Eight public media companies coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.